Alaska - Day 10 & 11

Friday, August 8, 2008 - The first part of the day was sailing into the small town of Ketchikan. We were due to dock at 2pm. It was a scenic ride in the inlet and there were whale watching opportunities. We didn't see any. Jack swam all morning with his new friends. He started some secret club with them and he had lunch alone with one of his swim buddies. A few minutes before 2pm, we began the task of getting Jack out of the pool. This proves to be a challenge. He gets out and wines that he wants to stay with everyone and swim. But moments later, all the other kids are getting out of the pool because their parents want to disembark. Once Jack realizes this fact, things aren't so bad.

Buffy and Shari can't wait to shop. And there are plenty of stores to shop at in this town. I still don't understand the fascination. You wait in line after line, crowd and crowd. Each store you go into is the same crap for sale, though perhaps displayed differently. I just don't get it. Anyway, I did purchase a t-shirt (I'm looking for a sweatshirt without the hood... impossible to find). I then left the others to find a drug store to purchase needed toiletries. On my way I encountered Crazy Dave's Reptile Show. I didn't pay to go in, but out front were two gentlemen, one with a python and one with some black monitor from Africa that was on a leash. It was about the size of an alligator.

While Beth and Shari shopped, Dennis and Jack saw some other sites. They came across a bridge on Creek Street where various people were salmon fishing. You could look down and see schools of salmon trying to swim upstream. Mom shopped close to the ship at the Outlet Store. I went back to the ship to grab my computer and utilize the local Internet to get some business e-mails, if any, and to post the last couple of days on this blog. I was at an espresso shop when I saw Mom out the window. I waved at her and she came in and hung out while I did all my posting. This damn MacBook! I'm still trying to configure my e-mail program. I can receive messages fine... it sending them is the problem. The same with our cell phones on the ship... a common theme?

At 5pm, Mom, Dennis, Jack and I had tickets for the local lumberjack show. It was an entertaining show. It was set up as a competition between the Spruce Mill Camp (US) and the Dawson Creek Camp (Yukon Territory Canada). The audience was divided and we fell on the Dawson Creek Camp team. The hostess told us the story of how Ketchikan was once a logging capital. Over in the Yukon Territory was another logging community and every now and then, these lumberjacks would get together for drinks and such. Of course bragging would go on about what they could do so then they decided to have a competition, for fun I presume, to see who's better. This was the basis of lumberjack competitions today.

Among the competitions they used specially equipped chain saws that were pretty loud. The pole climbing was very impressive, especially when they would descend. I almost thought they screwed up and were going to fall. The lumberjacks used cottonwood trees to cut on because the wood is softer. Had they used a harder wood, the show would be going on much longer. Jack was able to take some cut wood home as a souvenir. He had already got a chip of wood from one of the lumberjacks when our team had scored.

I went with Dennis to see the salmon fishing after the show while Mom and Jack returned to the ship. Beth and Shari were still shopping. They did not get back to the ship until almost the last minute. They did stop at a couple of drinking establishments where they met a local who invited them back to his home. I don't know if he goes to the tourist traps and try to pick up women. They also stopped at Fat Stan's which was right outside the lumberjack show.

We didn't do much after dinner. Went to our room and then back to the Ocean Bar to see the regulars. At 10:30pm there was the Chocolate Extravaganza by the Lido pool on Deck 8. All this stuff looked really rich and fattening. Believe it or not, I didn' t have any. Buffy and Shari did get in the long line to get their share. Dennis and I went outside on Deck 9 to check out the fog. Out in the middle of nowhere, nothing but fog and cold wind... very erie. Every now and then, you could hear the ship's fog horn.

Now it's time for sleep.

Saturday, August 9, 2008 - I am now coming to you live from the Lido Pool on Deck 8, somewhere at sea. The sun is out and there is no sign of land anywhere. Today is a full day of sailing on the Pacific Ocean until we pull into Vancouver tomorrow morning at 7am. We have already crossed time zones and we are in the Pacific Time Zone. Beth and I have already cleaned up and had breakfast. Buffy is reading while I'm blogging. Not really a whole lot to do today. At 12:15pm right now, I haven't seen anyone else.

Tomorrow, we make our final disembarkation and begin to head home. My friend from high school, Matt Astel, is actually in Vancouver right now and I'm making efforts to visit for a couple of hours.

As our trip winds down, I will probably only have one more post. I don't know if anything exciting and entertaining will happen in the next 24 hours, but if it does, maybe and extra post. Dennis is stir crazy from the cruise; Buffy loves it. I don't really want to go back to the midwest for heat and humidity. But all things must come to an end sometime.